Question

What is Wordsworth talking about in the passage (Tintern Abbey): "A Presence that disturbs me with the joy/ Of elevated thoughts; a sense subline / Of something far more deeply interfused, / Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, / And the round ocean and the living air,/ And the blue sky, and in the mind of man;/ A motion and a spirit, that impels/ All thinking things, all objects of all thought,/ And rolls through all things."

a) Nature
b) Imagination
c) Love
d) Poetry

Answer 1

Wordsworth's passage from "Tintern Abbey" speaks to the spiritual presence of nature that intertwines with the human mind and spirit, showcasing Romanticism's emphasis on emotion and imagination as tools for experiencing the world.

Step-by-step explanation:

In the passage from Wordsworth's "Tintern Abbey," the speaker is discussing nature and its profound, spiritual presence that connects deeply with the human mind and spirit. Wordsworth describes this presence as something that exists in the sublime elements of nature, like the setting sun, the oceans, the living air, and the sky, as well as tangibly inside the mind of humans.

This passage reflects the Romantic ideal that emotion and imagination are fundamental in perceiving and experiencing the natural world, emphasizing a symbiotic relationship where nature informs human understanding and vice versa. The poem suggests that there is a motion and a spirit interwoven with all aspects of the world, living or inanimate, which is central to Romantic views on nature's role in human life and the creative process.